CroMagnon
by Rae325
Summary: When Lee McHenry reappears, it stirs long buried emotions for Cooper.


_This plot bunny hopped along and refused to go away until it was on paper. __As always, I would love to read your feedback, whether positive or negative._

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Charlotte King was trying to learn how to boogie board. Ever since she and Cooper had bought a house on the beach, Mason had been insisting that she needed to learn. Cooper, Mason told Charlotte, was as bad at boogie boarding as he was at wii tennis, and she needed to pick up the slack.

Violet, Pete, and Lucas had joined the King-Freedman-Warner clan for a day at the beach, and Mason had dragged Charlotte into the ice-cold water while the rest of the party sunned themselves. Mason had been trying patiently to explain to his momma how to ride a wave for 15 minutes, but so far Charlotte hadn't managed to move more than a foot on the board.

"You want to stand just before where the wave is going to break," Mason tells her. He looks behind them at the surf, "Oooh. That one. Get ready."

Charlotte does as she's told. She's willing to go along with this until she is flipped over by a wave or gets hypothermia from the freezing waver; whichever comes first. She hops on her boogie board at exactly the right moment, and somehow manages to catch a perfect wave almost into shore. She's still going quickly (and rather enjoying the ride) when she bangs into a man and his son standing in the shallow water. "I'm so sorry," Charlotte says as she gets her bearings and stands up.

When the man turns around to reply Charlotte feels like the wind has been knocked out of her. It's Lee McHenry. He looks just as shocked as she is. "Come on, Ben," he tells his son, turning and exiting the water as quickly as possible. Charlotte can vaguely hear Lee's son's protests and Mason's cheers about her great ride over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

Mason comes barreling over to Charlotte. "Momma, that was awesome!" he tells her.

Charlotte forces a smile. "Thanks Mase." She takes a deep breath, notices her hands are shaking uncontrollably, adrenaline pumping through her body. "Hey, I'm, uh, I'm pretty cold. Think we can get out for a few minutes?"

"Yeah. I'm freezing too," Mason admits. "And it's good to stop on a high note."

"Yeah," Charlotte agrees, putting a shaking hand on Mason's back as they walk out of the surf.

"You really are cold," Mason tells Charlotte, feeling her tremble.

"Yeah," she says, trying to play it off like everything is ok.

Mason runs over to the beach blanket. "Dad, did you see how awesome Momma was?"

"No, I missed it. Sorry Mase," Cooper tells his son.

"Coop can I talk to you a second?" Charlotte asks her husband. Cooper looks up at Charlotte confusedly, before following her away from the blanket.

"What's up?" Cooper asks, wrapping his arm around Charlotte. "I heard you had a gnarly ride."

Charlotte doesn't say anything, just keeps walking. She wants to be farther from where Mason can hear them, because she's pretty sure Cooper won't be able to keep his reaction quiet. When Charlotte feels like they're sufficiently far from the beach blanket, she stops and turns to Cooper. "I just saw Lee McHenry," Charlotte tells her husband.

Cooper turns and scans the beach. He spots Lee, Nancy, and their son packing up their things. Before Charlotte can say anything else, Cooper takes off towards Lee.

Everything seems to happen at once. Cooper is screaming that he's going to kill Lee. Then he's on top of Lee, who is too stunned to even try to fight back. Nancy is screaming. Pete is dragging Cooper off of Lee. Cooper is screaming, "Let me go. He raped Charlotte. He deserves to die."

Charlotte turns to look at Mason, who is shocked and has tears in his eyes. She runs back over to the blanket and bends down next to Mason. "It's ok, Mason. Everything's ok," she tells him.

"Who is that man?" Mason asks, eyes wide and frightened.

Charlotte feels like she needs to take care of both Mason and Cooper right now. But her terrified son has to come first. "Violet, can you try to calm Coop down a little? I need to talk to Mason."

"Of course," Violet tells Charlotte. She does not envy Charlotte right now. The conversation Charlotte is about to have with Mason is one that Violet has dreaded having with Lucas since she published her book.

Charlotte rubs Mason's arm, drawing his attention from Cooper, who Pete is still restraining. "It's ok, Mase. Come take a walk with me." Charlotte wraps her arm around Mason and walks with him away from the scene Cooper is making. Mason keeps turning around to look at his dad. Charlotte feels the same urge to turn and go to Cooper, but she reminds herself that Mason is just a kid and that he's just watched his father beat up a stranger on the beach. He's bound to be freaked out.

Charlotte sits down with Mason on a bench on the boardwalk. She runs her hand over his hair a few times, thinking about what to say. Before she can articulate her thoughts, Mason asks, "That man hurt you?"

"Yes," Charlotte tells her son. She and Cooper had given Mason a brief explanation of what rape was when they were reading _To Kill a Mockingbird_ together, but Charlotte knows that at nine he doesn't fully grasp the concept. "He attacked me a few years ago, but I'm ok." She figures that simple explanations are best. As Mason gets older Charlotte guesses that he will have more questions, and that's fine, she can answer them when the time comes.

"Is he going to try to hurt you again?"

"No. I don't want you to worry, sweetie. He's never tried to hurt me again, and I'm not worried that he will now." Saying that out loud actually helps Charlotte. Rationally, she isn't worried that Lee will attack her again. There had been months between him raping Charlotte and when he'd gone to prison, and he had never tried to find her. Even now, the second Lee had seen Charlotte he had left immediately.

"Your daddy's ok, Mase," Charlotte tells Mason, rubbing his back. "You know that he's very protective of us, and he was angry and surprised."

"I've never seen him that angry."

"He rarely gets angry like that. What that man did was really awful, and your dad is very upset." Mason nods nervously. "Come here, honey," Charlotte tells Mason, pulling him against her side. She wraps both of her arms around him. "I love you Mason," she whispers into his hair. It's a comfort to Charlotte to hold her son, and she hopes it's a comfort to Mason too. "You can ask me anything you want, you know that right?" Mason nods against Charlotte's chest. "Good." Mason's nervous and shaken and doesn't seem ready to ask Charlotte questions.

Pete walks towards Charlotte and Mason carrying Lucas in his arms. He doesn't want to give Charlotte another thing to worry about, but Cooper needs his wife right now. "Charlotte, Cooper needs to see you. Maybe Lucas and I could hang out with Mason for a few minutes."

Charlotte knows that something is wrong. She had expected for Cooper to calm down and then come over and talk to their son. "Is that ok, Mase?"

"Yeah," he tells Charlotte, sitting up straight.

Charlotte stands and places a kiss on Mason's head. "He and Violet went back to your house," Pete tells Charlotte. She thanks him and makes the short trip to her home.

As Charlotte opens the sliding glass door she hears Cooper in the next room telling Violet, "It's my job, Violet. It's my job to protect her." He sounds like he's crying.

Charlotte walks into the living room. Cooper is sitting on the couch, shaking from anger, crying, and holding his bloodied right hand to his body. Charlotte notices the matching crack in the plaster of the wall. Violet is sitting next to Cooper, her body language cautious, like he might explode any moment.

When Cooper notices Charlotte he immediately tries to calm himself. It's an effort that has limited success, and he ends up taking raspy sobs. Charlotte walks over to the couch, and Violet gets up to leave, giving the blonde a supportive pat on the arm as she passes. Charlotte sits down next to her husband who has buried his face in his hands. "Coop," Charlotte whispers, putting a hand on Cooper's back and trying to coax him towards her.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he keeps repeating, and Charlotte isn't sure whether he means for falling apart or for the fact that he couldn't protect Charlotte from being raped.

"Shh. It's ok," she tells her husband. Cooper can't stand that Charlotte is trying to comfort him right now. She just came face to face with her rapist, but here Cooper is making her be strong for him. He wipes his face with his good hand, and finally gets the tears under control.

"I'm sorry Char," he tells Charlotte looking at her now.

"For what?"

Cooper shakes his head. It's overwhelming what he's sorry for right now. That she's here comforting him. That he attacked Lee and blurted out that Charlotte had been raped in front of their son. But most of all, Cooper is so sorry that he couldn't protect his wife. It's irrational, and he knows it. But Cooper was brought up to believe that a man protects his wife, and Cooper had failed his in the worst possible way. "I should have protected you Charlotte," he whispers so softly that Charlotte barely hears it sitting right next to him.

Cooper's eyes are downcast again. "Look at me," Charlotte tells him, putting a hand on his chin and nudging his face upwards. When Cooper makes eye contact she tells him, "Bad things happen, and there is nothing you can do about them. You're not Superman and you're not God."

"But I'm your husband, and it is my job to take care of you," Cooper tells Charlotte, and it hits him that he's failing her right this second. "God, Charlotte, are you ok? I mean you can't be ok right now."

"I'm ok," Charlotte tells him. She's shaken, but she is nowhere near as upset as her husband is. And in a way it feels good to be the strong one right now. "Tell me that you don't blame yourself for what Lee did to me," Charlotte insists, her hand still on Cooper's face, keeping him from turning away.

"I'm your husband, and I couldn't do anything to help you," Cooper tells Charlotte. They had never talked much about what he'd gone through after Charlotte was raped. In the immediate aftermath, Charlotte was so overwhelmed by her own feelings that she just couldn't deal with Cooper's as well. Charlotte knew he talked to Violet and Sheldon, and she hoped that they were able to help him when she wasn't able to. Once Charlotte began to feel stronger, both she and Cooper had wanted to put the rape behind them. Not that they buried it – they talked about it if something came up – but they didn't want to linger on awful memories when they were newlyweds and had a life together to focus on.

Now Charlotte wonders whether she should have pushed Cooper to talk to her more about what the months after her rape were like for him. She hates the idea that her husband walks around with guilt for this, that what happened to her still makes Cooper feel powerless. Charlotte realizes that while she had been forced to process her emotions, Cooper had simply buried his.

Charlotte doesn't want to revisit this time in her life, but her husband needs her to, so she takes a deep breath and steels herself for the conversation that she knows they need to have. "You did help me Coop," she tells him. She's said it before, but she's never really talked about how he helped her. "Dealing with the rape…there were things that I needed time to work through, pain you couldn't just take away. But don't you ever think that you didn't help me. You stayed with me through everything, and you just, you made me feel safe to do what I needed to deal with what happened. I wouldn't be who I am today without you, Coop." _He has to know that, right? _Cooper is crying, seeming touched by Charlotte's words, and she hates to think that he never knew these things.

"I love you so much," Cooper tells his wife.

Charlotte wraps her arms around Cooper and pulls him so that he's leaning against her chest. "I love you too," she says, resting her cheek against his head. Cooper's sobbing hard again. "Coop?"

"I'm sorry."

"Talk to me Cooper. We can talk about this. I'm ok," Charlotte reassures Cooper, realizing just how much of his feelings he tried to shelter her from.

"I can't stop thinking about what he did to you. I can't stop thinking about you that night." They've never talked about this before. It was something that Charlotte hated, the idea that Cooper pictured her bruised and broken, that he thought about what Lee had done to her. But the images are overwhelming, and Cooper needs to talk to someone about them. And Charlotte's right – they should be able to talk about this. "God, what you went through Char."

"It was awful, but I got through it," Charlotte tells Cooper, running her fingers through his hair and adding, "with your help."

Cooper feels so guilty then. There's something else that happened the night he had kissed Amelia that he has never talked to his wife about. Cooper had told Sheldon that he felt like he was trying to hold up the corpse of a woman he once knew, a woman that he was sure would never come back. Cooper had been so certain that he had lost the woman he loved forever. "You're so strong Charlotte," he tells her. "You came back from that. You came back."

Cooper sounds shocked and incredulous. "I did," Charlotte tells him simply.

"I should never have doubted that. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I was scared too."

"But I'm your husband. I shouldn't have doubted you."

"Hey," Charlotte says gently. She hates to see Cooper like this. "I was terrified that you'd leave me." Charlotte has never told Cooper that before, and he's shocked and horrified. He looks up at Charlotte, and she smiles at him. "But I know how stupid that was now," she tells him. "We were scared and struggling though a really hard time. You can't control what you feel Coop." That had been a hard learned lesson for Charlotte after she'd been attacked, but she'd learned to acknowledge the feelings she hated – the shame and guilt – and to move past them. "All that matters is that we got through everything together. Just like we always will," Charlotte tells her husband with a smile. If there is anything she feels certain about, it's that.

Cooper feels a little more comfortable now, and it feels good to share these things that he'd kept from her for so long. "I was so scared," Cooper admits. "I would have stayed no matter what. You have to know that." He hopes it's true. Wants to believe he would have stayed even if Charlotte had never recovered. "But I was so scared I'd never really get you back. I need you Charlotte. I'm so, so sorry."

"You have me," Charlotte tells her husband.

"I'm sorry," Cooper tells her again.

"You need to stop feeling guilty," Charlotte says. And yes, she knows, easier said than done. But at the very least she needs her husband to know that she doesn't blame him for anything and that she is so grateful for him. "You did exactly what I needed you to do. You loved me. Even when I pushed you away, even when I was scared and ashamed."

"Charlotte," Cooper says. It still hurts to hear that she'd felt those things. It still hurts to think that she didn't take it for granted that he would keep loving her.

"Will you just listen?" Charlotte says, and Cooper can't help a smile at her slightly exasperated tone. "You know how hard it was for me to open up," she tells him, and it truly had been one of the hardest things she'd ever done to let herself be so exposed with another person. "But you were there when I was at my most vulnerable. You were there just loving me. I know you felt powerless, but you made me feel truly loved for the first time in my life. It's the most powerful thing you could have done." Even saying this now, telling Cooper these things, makes Charlotte feel vulnerable. But being open with her husband comes more naturally now. And she needs to say this, because she hates to think that Cooper doesn't know what he's done for her.

Cooper is stunned. The thought that he made Charlotte feel loved for the first time in her life is overwhelming. For a minute he's speechless. He just puts his hand on Charlotte's cheek and caresses it gently. He touches the almost imperceptible scar from where Lee McHenry split her cheek. He knows its location by heart, just as he likes to believe he knows every detail of Charlotte inside and out. But then she says things like this and Cooper realizes that he's always learning more about his wife. "Thank you for telling me that Char."

Charlotte smiles at Cooper. Today has unearthed a lot of feelings for both of them, a lot of feelings that they still need to explore. Charlotte is reminded of the fact that coping with what happened to her will never be completely done for either of them. It's something that will always be a part of their lives together, but it's something that she knows that they can deal with as long as they keep being honest with each other. They love each other and trust each other, and that doesn't solve everything, but it's enough to make Charlotte feel safe in the knowledge that they can handle whatever life throws their way.


End file.
